Cheap Points

Justin Watkins asked on the 16mmngm group if there was a way of
getting hold of cheap
points. Ready-made points cost just under £40 (at 2008 prices),
which is a little outside his budget. Second-hand points on
eBay seem to go for
nearly as much as new ones, making this a non-effective way
of obtaining them.

Several people replied suggesting suppliers:
Bob Bilsborrow pointed out that GRS and
Garden
Railway Centres
sell 2nd hand track for around 2/3 the price of new track, and
Steve Jackson recommended TrackShack
on the Isle of Man as being the cheapest in his experience.

Justin had mentioned that he didn't mind buying damaged points
and fixing them, if this could enable him to obtain the trackwork
he needed for less.

A few people suggested that Justin make his own
points. For example, Peco make the components, allowing you
to create your own track, and this could work out about half
the cost of ready-made track.

A cheaper option still is to make your own trackwork by soldering rail
to copper-clad paxolin sleepers, as is done in smaller scales. You do
have to make your own point blades and frogs, although this isn't
really hard. This option
also allows you to custom-make the trackwork
to your own requirements.
The following article by Martin Williamson explains in great depth
how to build a point for a garden railway using copper-clad
sleepers:
www.cobbybrook.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/turnouts.htm

A quick search on the internet should yield many more such
articles, and the skills are transferable between scales -
to some extent, it should be easier in larger scales because
of the greater tolerances in larger scales.

It was suggested that making your
own is probably just as easy as repairing a broken
point, and could cost as little as £10.

Other options for track making include the more prototypical
options of fixing rail to wooden sleepers, either by soldering
the track to pins in the sleepers, or with little rail chairs,
or even spiking the track down.

I found the following two websites which sell copper-clad
sleepers for O gauge (this being suitable for SM32 narrow gauge
trackmaking).